


ice ice baby

by oceanbed



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Ice Skating, M/M, Non-Idol, Non-Idol AU, figure skater, figure skater!jun, figure skating, other characters to be added - Freeform, use of figure skating terms
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-05-23 05:04:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14927660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oceanbed/pseuds/oceanbed
Summary: Certified figure skater Wen Junhui ends another skating season in his home country successfully. When a sleepless night caused him to meet a pretty stranger the next day, he wonders if fate would let them meet again.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is a trainwreck but i'm weirdly proud of this.

It’s the end of another skating season, and Wen Junhui is exhausted. He doesn’t understand why his legs feel more tired and why the bruises from practice hurt more than it usually does, but it’s bothering him to no end.

 

He’s back in his home country, and he’s currently laying in the bed of a 5-star hotel in Beijing that the ISU reserved for their athletes. Even with the king sized bed, the warm comforter and his Huihui doll –the cat mascot that became his trademark- in his embrace, he can’t get himself to feel comfortable. He twists and turns until the bed sheets got jumbled and Huihui fell from the bed dramatically after Jun accidentally kicked it. He sighed and stopped trying to fall asleep.

 

He got up from his bed and turned on his bedside lamp. He looks around his room and winces at his clothes scattered on the floor. He was supposed to start packing the next morning for his flight to Shenzhen, his home town. He decided that, hell, since he’s pretty sure he won’t be sleeping tonight, might as well be productive. He picks up Huihui and sat down on the floor, quietly folding his clothes and stuffing them into his suitcase.

 

It’s still a few more hours until the sun rises and the whole town wakes up. Jun still can’t sleep. He decided to give up trying and scroll through his social media to pass the time.

 

He turned on his phone, and he was greeted with a barrage of messages from his friends, a variation of _‘Congrats for winning second!’_ , _‘You did great today!’_ , _‘I’m proud of you.’_ and _‘See you next season!’_ flooding his inbox. He ignored all of it.

 

He was tagged in a lot of pictures from the banquet, and Jun smiled to himself as he liked each one. He scrolls through fan posts, laughing silently as he scrolls through more posts. He reads some e-books, continued to twist and turn on his bed, and before he knew it, the sun is up. Jun silently cheers for getting through the night without bothering anyone. He got up from bed and stretched, feeling satisfied when he hears the familiar pop from his stiff joints straightening itself. Weirdly enough, he feels refreshed. His eyes are a bit sore, but other than that his body doesn’t feel tired. Maybe he’ll skate today. It’s been a while since he visited his friend’s skating rink. He’ll drop by for a few hours before going to the airport.

 

 

 

 

The streets of Beijing are as crowded as he remembered it. It’s been five years since he had last came back to China. With his figure skating career slowly rising up as he makes a name for himself among the stars of figure skating, he couldn’t spare time to visit even if he wanted to. He moved to Korea shortly after he met his current coach, and he’s been training ever since. Season after season he skates until he’s where he is today. As he walks the familiar streets to the skating rink he reminisces the past, how his parents had been against it at first, but after they saw how passionate Jun was on skating, they let him skate, even going as far as signing him up for ballet classes along with skating courses. They were his first supporters, and if it weren’t for them he wouldn’t have made it past the regionals.

 

His mind wanders to his friends, those who were with him while he struggles with his sore body and his crumbling mentality while he was in a slump. They’re all working now, and if he wasn’t mistaken, a few of the messages he dismissed last night were from them. He should check it out later.

 

The cup of coffee in his hand had gone cold when he arrives at the rink. Its exterior remains the same; except for the paint job had started to get worn off from time and harsh weather, and the huge banner saying _‘Welcome Back, Wen Junhui!’_ that’s plastered on the top of the building aimlessly swaying with the wind.

 

He steps inside, and he’s hit with the familiar cold breeze from the air conditioner that keeps the ice solid. His friend was too busy arranging skating shoes to notice that Jun just arrived. So he grinned while calmly walking toward the counter, careful not to make a sound. His friend remains oblivious.

 

“This place hasn’t changed since the last time I was here. Are you sure you’re managing the place well enough, Seokmin?”

 

His friend -Seokmin- jumped at his voice. He whipped his head around, his eyes wide as Jun stands there grinning at him.

 

It took Seokmin two beats before he finally realized what was going on, and his eyes lit up as his smile grows bigger and bigger until he’s grinning from ear to ear. He ran and tackled Jun into a hug, Jun laughing as he stumbled backwards from the force of Seokmin hurling himself at him.

 

“You didn’t tell me that you were gonna visit!” Seokmin whines when he finally lets Jun go.

 

“I forgot about that.” Jun smiles sheepishly as he rubbed the back on his nape.

 

Seokmin looks unimpressed. But that lasted a mere three seconds before his sunbeam of a smile returned. Jun feels his cheeks rise up as well.

 

“There’s somebody here right now, but he won’t bother you,” Seokmin said before returning to arranging shoes.

 

Jun just shrugs. He couldn’t care less about the other person. He’ll just ignore his presence. Hopefully the other person does the same.

 

Jun went inside the locker room to change his shoes. That’s when he first noticed the music playing from inside. It’s weird, Jun thinks. Seokmin doesn’t usually play music until the place is crowded. And Seokmin never plays waltz. It’s always those upbeat pop songs that appeal to the public that’s played through the place’s speakers. Jun pulls up the zipper of his jacket before entering the rink.

 

He would be damned if he tried to ignore the presence of a skater _this_ amazing. When Jun enters, the person skating to the waltz did a triple axel and landed in a way that Jun could only describe as _light_ , for lack of a better word _._ This person looks like he’s moving with the wind as he glides through the ice with ease. The bangs of his jet black hair got pushed back from how fast he’s skating. He did a quad flip and began a step sequence. At this point, Jun couldn’t tear his gaze away.

 

The guy continues to zip through the ice, his blue parka flapping as he glides from one side to the other. He did a quad lutz and a triple toe loop combination move. Jun had to restrain himself from gasping in awe.

 

The music is ending, Jun notes. He quickly moved and perched himself on the barrier. He wanted to see the ending up close. The guy did a combination spin, crouching on the ice before slowly standing up and pulling a leg up. Jun thinks the move looks absolutely stunning.

 

The guy ended his routine with both his hands in the air, like he’s reaching up for the heavens, before slowly pulling them into his chest. Jun could see his breath exhaled as short white puffs. He looked gorgeous. Jun couldn’t hold himself any longer. He clapped.

 

The guy turned his head so fast, Jun was surprised it didn’t give him whiplash. The guy continued to glare at him, looking offended. Jun finally snaps out of his trance and went on the ice, skating towards the stranger in the middle of the rink.

 

“I’m sorry for surprising you,” Jun says immediately. “I came in in the middle of your routine and I didn’t want to interrupt you.”

 

The stranger’s eyes soften, just the tiniest bit. Jun doesn’t know why he feels so relieved by that.

 

The guy looked even better up close, Jun notices. His black hair was messed up by the wind, his nose, ears and cheeks were already red from the cold, and he has the prettiest eyes Jun has ever seen. How fitting, Jun thinks. Pretty eyes for a person who has pretty figure skating techniques. The guy starts to circle the rink. Jun follows closely behind him.

 

“You were amazing just now,” Jun says, slowing down a bit so as to not to surpass the guy. The pretty stranger looked at him and the corners of his lip twitched up. Jun should not be affected by such a small smile, but why does a simple thing like that makes his heart thump so hard against his ribcage?

 

“Thank you. You’re not so bad yourself,” he answered.  Jun blinks. Turns out he liked the guy’s voice more than he thought he would.

 

“What do you mean by me? You’ve never seen me skate before.” Jun speeds up a bit and skates in front of the guy, facing backwards.

 

“Do you really think I’ve never seen the country’s number one figure skater skate before? How low do you think of me?” The guy smirks at him. Oh, sarcasm. Jun didn’t expect that from him.

 

“So you know me?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

 

“Wen Junhui, China’s number one figure skater, won second place in the finals this skating season, finally back in his home country to compete for glory,” he recites. Jun remembers reading an online article like that a few days ago. “The whole county’s been celebrating your return since three days ago. I heard some stuff about you.”

 

Jun smirks. “And what rumors did you hear, exactly?”

 

The guy scoffs, skating past Jun and facing backwards. Jun turns around to face him.

 

“Dating scandals, your retirement rumors, your plans for the next season, those kinds of stuff.” The guy shrugs as he turns around.

 

Jun hummed, nodding his head lightly. Those are common rumors that he’s gotten used to after years in the figure skating world. Jun speeds up and faced backwards again, refusing to let the stranger go just yet.

 

“So you know who I am, but I still don’t know who you are,” he said. The guy scoffs again. This time he sounded like he knew Jun was going to say that. Jun shoved the thought of him being too predictable into the darkest corners of his brain.

 

“It’s a secret,” the guy says, the tiniest hint of playfulness in his voice. Jun managed to catch the tiny smirk tugging at the corner of the guy’s lips. Oh, he’s in trouble. He can’t go too deep in this. The guy is literally a stranger. He might be using him for his money and fame and he could leave him heartbroken. But at this point, he thinks he’s already in too deep.

 

“If I prove myself to you, then would you tell me who you are?” Jun bargains.

 

The guy pretended to think about it, but the mischievous look in his eyes already shown his answer.

 

“Only if you’re good,” he finally says.

 

So Jun starts preparing, plugging the aux chord to his phone, and playing his music from yesterday’s short program. The starting notes echoes inside the rink.

 

His starting stance was strong, and he’ll make sure his performance stays powerful until the song ends. He won’t let his stamina get to him, not when he has to prove that he’s worthy of something.

 

Jun felt like his insides were on fire. His legs didn’t wobble when he lands his jumps, and neither did it shake during his step sequence. He doesn’t know how, since just last night his body feels sore all over, but now his muscles feel like they’re steel. Must’ve been the coffee, he thinks. He landed his final jump successfully.

 

The music fades out, and Jun stays still in his ending pose until he hears the guy clap. He opens his eyes and was greeted with him smiling. Not a sunbeam smile like Seokmin’s, but it still warms his heart, how it’s a bit lopsided when he smiles that wide.

 

“Not bad, Wen Junhui,” he said as he pats him on the shoulder. Jun felt so accomplished. He’s so happy he thinks he could land a quintuple jump with ease.

 

“So what’s your name?” Jun asks, unable to keep his voice from sounding so smug. The stranger didn’t even bother to hide his exasperated smile.

 

“Xu Minghao,” he answers finally. Jun couldn’t think of a prettier name than his.

 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Xu Minghao.” Jun likes how Minghao’s name rolls off his tongue with ease. It’s the only name that matters to him now.

 

Minghao smiled and went back to circling the rink. Jun decided that he’ll practice his jumps for a while, content with the feeling of Minghao watching him from close by.

 

“Hey, Minghao?” Jun calls out after a while.

 

“Hm?” he looks up from where he was sitting on the benches.

 

“I was wondering where you learned to skate like that.” Jun skated closer to him, leaning on the barrier.

 

Minghao sighed and smiled, but there’s something about his smile that feels bittersweet. Jun isn’t sure if asking that was a bad idea or not.

 

“I used to skate when I was little,” he answered. “I stopped for a little while. I’ve only started again last year, so my technique is a bit rusty.”

 

Jun couldn’t help but feel like Minghao’s not telling him the whole story, but he decided not to push him further.

 

“But you were great just now,” Jun said. Minghao gave him a lopsided smile.

 

“Thanks.”

 

 

 

 

 

Jun only noticed Minghao leaving when he was almost out the door. He had been a bit preoccupied in doing spins to notice Minghao stuffing his things into his bag. If he didn’t hear the door being opened he might have thought that Minghao was merely a piece of his imagination.

 

“Are you leaving already?” Jun called out. Minghao stopped dead on his tracks and turned to him. He had an apologetic smile on his face.

 

“Yeah, I don’t wanna be late,” he answered. Before Jun could ask any more questions Minghao had already rushed out, leaving Jun with only echoes of his last words.

 

_“Bye, Junhui!”_

Jun felt his heart sink. He didn’t manage to ask if they could meet again.


	2. Chapter 2

When Jun finally snaps out of the whole Minghao ordeal, he realized he has less than an hour left to go back to his room and leave to catch the plane. He packs his belongings hastily, barely managing to hug Seokmin goodbye before dashing outside. The cold November wind hits his face harshly, but he kept running anyways.

 

He rushes to the airport, tapping his feet as he the taxi moves forward slowly when they got caught in morning traffic. When the taxi finally stopped he quickly ran inside, suitcase in tow, and everything became a blur until he actually sits down on his airplane seat. He lets out the breath he was unconsciously holding and relaxed in his seat. He could hear his heartbeat still thumping inside his chest from the adrenaline.

 

Jun realized with a start that he hasn’t eaten anything since this morning besides the coffee. A memory of his coach yelling at him came to mind. He shivered at the image. Not wanting to face the wrath of his coach, he ordered himself a French toast, completely disregarding his strict diet.

 

After breakfast, a wave of exhaustion crashed into him and Jun immediately fell asleep. Yesterday’s sleepless night finally caught up to him. He slept like a brick, small snores escaping his lips.

 

He was woken up by the flight attendant shaking him lightly to fasten his seatbelt. They’ve already reached their destination, and he slept through the whole flight. Jun rubbed the sleep off his eyes as the plane prepares to land, bracing himself when the wheels hit the runway. He feels a little lightheaded, probably because he slept in the wrong position just now.

 

He takes a sharp inhale when his feet touched solid ground again. He’s finally back in Shenzhen.

 

The taxi ride back home was filled with anxiousness. Jun was jumpy, he couldn’t stop bouncing his feet and chewing his lip. He’s been homesick for far too long. Each passing second felt like hours.

 

When he finally arrived at the gates of his childhood home, he sighed amusedly. His front garden didn’t change at all. His mother’s rose bushes are still flourishing, his little brother’s bike is still the same shade of fiery red, and the front door still looks as welcoming as ever. He walked up the familiar steps and knocked.

 

His family ran out to greet him as soon as the door opened. They engulfed him in the biggest bone crushing hug, and although his heart is swelling, Jun’s almost certain he stopped breathing for a whole minute before they finally let him go. He hasn’t felt himself smile this big ever since the first time he won first place in a skating competition. His eyes curved into charming crescents, almost a splitting image of his mother.

 

“It’s good to have you back home,” his mother said as he hugged her. Jun chuckled into her embrace.

 

“It’s good to be back home.”

 

 

 

 

 

His mother had ushered him inside and immediately sat him down on the dining table. They prepared lunch for him, his favorite comfort foods set on the table for them to eat together. Jun smiles as a wave of nostalgia hits him, making him feel a bit too emotional for his own liking.

 

After cleaning up after lunch, he immediately face planted into his bed. He inhaled, smelling the familiar scent of the fabric softener from his bed sheets. He lays there for a while, quietly settling back in to his childhood room. His old textbooks are still lined up neatly on the shelf. Jun smiles fondly of the memories of him in high school that came to mind. There were photo albums too, Jun noticed. The ones filled with embarrassing childhood photos that his mother would show to guests that came visiting their house.

 

Jun slowly got up and pulled the album out, blowing off the dust on it as he sits down on his bed.

 

The first few pages were pictures of him when he was a baby. Pictures of him in his crib, in his mother’s embrace, being cradled by his father. Jun smiles to himself as he turns the pages. There were also pictures of him with his little brother, Fengjun. Pictures of them with their father, Jun carrying Fengjun on his back, and –oh- pictures when they first tried ice skating! Jun inspects the picture of his father holding his hand as he tries to balance on the ice closely. That was the day when Jun first learned how to skate. A fair had opened up in the middle of winter and everyone came to try ice skating outside.

 

Jun chuckles at a picture of him crying after falling on the ice. He’s seen this picture before. Once, when he was around 8, about a month since he started skating courses. He always thinks that the picture was the start of his whole career. After he fell, he was so determined to be able to balance that by the time he finished, the sun had almost set. He was lucky his parents didn’t yell at him for playing for too long.

 

He inspects the picture of him crying closely, squinting at the blurred people in the background. There was a little boy staring at him crying, clear enough for Jun to see the boy’s ears peeking out from his thick woolen hat. He must’ve think Jun was some crybaby. He wonders if the boy knows that Jun is now a world renowned figure skater.

 

He puts the picture back inside the album, closing it with a sigh. He lies back down on his bed.

 

His mind wanders back to this morning, to his meeting with Xu Minghao on the ice rink. The memory of Minghao skating so gracefully plays in his mind. When he close his eyes, he could still see Minghao landing his jumps, how his feet wobbles when he lands but didn’t fall down. He could still see how his hands tremble as he pulls it into his chest on his final ending pose. Jun bit his lip unconsciously. He really hopes he could meet Minghao again. He wanted to see him skate again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's a short one, sorry. i'll make it up in the next chapter i promise.

**Author's Note:**

> i might continue this if people are interested in it? comments and kudos are highly appreciated, it gives me life. thank you for reading.


End file.
